Digital marketing with single-mindedness.

Mobile App Design – when simple is beautiful

I’ve decided that designers and creative types like to bundle mobile apps with features that can be near impossible to bring to life. I know I’m going to lose a few ‘friends’ here .. but bare with me a minute.

When developing your first app for your brand or client – it’s more important to engage customers and get usage through having the right features and a flawless function.

Mobile Apps need to be beautiful in form & flawless in function

Would you rather an app that is a ‘Thing of Beauty’ or an App that delivers on its function?

The dilemma here is that making an app beautiful will cost more than you ever budgeted for. It is definitely better to deliver an app that is flawless in how it functions … and then make it ‘smooth’ and beautiful to use.

And so I leave you to go away and open your Amazon Kindle app on your iPhone or iPad … and check it at different times of the day … It’s easy to make an app beautiful without burdening it with features or transitions or other visual tom-foolery.

The point I want to make about the Kindle app is that when you are at the ‘Home screen’ and viewing all your Kindle books, you can view them as a list or icons. Nothing else. It’s totally about the function.

Except … what’s that? the background changes based on the time of day. Now that is beautiful.

Opening

Dawn

Morning

Evening

Night

Linkage

About Damien Saunders

Damien Saunders is a Management Consultant. When not working, he is based in Brighton, UK. Damien specialises in Programme Management and Product Development.
Damien is a serial entrepreneur starting his first business at age 14. Currently Damien is specialising in the development of project management tools using jQuery, SharePoint and stuff.